"Oh What a Beautiful Morning"

So, for the last week and a half, I have been getting up with Mike when he goes to work. I jump (roll) out of bed when the alarm goes off and trot (drag my body) down the hallway to the kitchen and whip both of us up a very tasty soy protein shake. Shaklee's Energizing Soy Protein Mix is really the best there is...I take a tall glass of 1% milk, two heaping spoonfuls of nonfat vanilla yogurt, 6 tablespoons of ESP Mix, and a couple big handfuls of either frozen or fresh fruit...enough for 2 glasses! They are so good, and they are so healthy!! Mike's energy level has really sustained over the whole day. I'm so glad he's not coming home and falling over into bed like he usually does as a result of having maintenance insomnia. :( Anyway...he's loved me getting up to get his shake and vitamins ready and see him off to work, and I've loved being up this early in the morning...really. I used to me a great morning person, but slowly, I became a "late" morning person as Cole slept until 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. or later. Now, I'm up around 6:15 a.m. and have a little time for myself in the morning to do devos or just a little bit of housework. It's been great. This morning, I was sipping on my mango, pineapple and strawberry (a.k.a. tropical frozen fruit mix) shake, sitting at the kitchen table, and looking out at my bird feeder in the backyard. Looking through the very dirty sliding glass door, I realized, man this thing really does get dirty in a matter of two days. There were fingerprints all over it, smudges, cat hair, and who knows what else, and I got discouraged. And then I looked at all those handprints, from my adorable, precious son and I realized that it will only be a while longer that he will be making those smudges all over the doors, and then he'll be tall enough to reach the handle. After realizing that it is not the end of the world to have sticky handprints all over the sliding glass door, I took a second look at the smudges and found this...look at the top handprint...I thought it was precious. He really does hold my heart in his hands! (And now I'm teary-eyed!)

I'm Melting....I'm Melting....

Oh my gosh...seriously...it's WAY too hot!!! When Mike came home today at 4:15 p.m. it was 111 degrees. MAN! I, who really do like summer, am officially done with the heat. I'm ready for fall, ready to wear a sweater, ready for the leaves to change color, ready for the smell of crisp weather. And I'm ready to go on our trip to the Poconos. Yes, are lucky enough to be able to attend my cousin's wedding in October and are taking a little over a week trip to Pennsylvania, New York, Philadelphia, and maybe a couple of other surrounding areas. If you have ever been on that side of the US of A and have any great ideas of sight-seeing/things to do, let me know. We are planning on going to Manhattan one day, Philadelphia another, but don't have any other set plans.

Found out yesterday that I have yet another ear infection...the second of this summer. It really stinks and it pretty darn painful. Luckily, this one is the least painful of all the ones I've had over the last 3 years (only 4, but they seem to hurt so much, they count double or triple). And Cole has a bit of a cold. I think this if the first time he's had a cold in well over a year. I don't remember the last time he had a sniffly nose. But he's still his amazing self. I swear, I'm the luckiest mama in the whole wide world with getting to be a steward over Cole. Pretty awesome.
Also wanted to wish Mike's mom, Michelle, a very happy birthday. She turned "29" yesterday and Cole was so excited to sing his Grammy the Happy Birthday song. It was also Cole's BFF Jeremy's birthday as well and Cole got to do double the singing! :) Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

On Saturday, our niece, Addison, is turning 2 and is having a big ol' pool party bash to celebrate. At least they have a pool to help cool us all down. However, I'm not supposed to submerge my ears, so I might be out of luck. I'll still have fun holding the new little Amelia. :)

That's all I have to report. Mike has back-to-school-night tonight and I need to arrange all the goodies we are bringing for the families. Brownies (my fav), oatmeal raisin cookies, and peanut butter cookies. TASTY! (That's for your Kristal) Hope you have a great weekend, and you don't melt away like I have been doing. Here's to living in SoCal, right?! :)

A Big Step in Our Christian Walks...

On Sunday, August 19th, Mike and I had the privilege to be baptized at Grace in the amphitheatre. We talked about getting baptized for at least 2 years and never got around to doing it, always coming up with an excuse or something else. But, my dad (persistence always wins!!) sent me yet another email letting me know that there was going to be another night for baptisms coming up in August, thinking maybe this would be the time. Well, I forwarded the email to Mike, and he took the steps to set it up and the rest is history. Todd Roughton was kind enough to dunk us and we feel privileged to have such a good friend be in there with us. It was an amazing night of testimonies and commitments to the Lord and Mike and I are so excited that we finally "took the plunge"...literally. :) We had a ton of family and friends there supporting us and it was just an awesome evening. Here are some pictures from the night...

Mike giving his testimony...


Todd praying for Mike...

Todd baptizing Mike...

A cute look between the two of us...and me giving my testimony

Todd praying for me...

Mike and Todd baptizing me...

All three of us hugging after both baptisms!!!

Thanks to Todd for baptizing Mike and I...it was a honor, dude! And a HUGE thank you to all of our friends and family for coming out to support us in our Christian walks. And last, but CERTAINLY not least, thank you to our Lord, for choosing us for His kingdom and for the blessings He bestows on us daily. We both hope You were pleased by or professions that night.

Back from Indio...

So...we returned from Indio on Sunday night...and came back to about the same heat! :( It was blazing hot the whole time we were there, but we still managed to have a blast with my mom and dad and Emilie and Brice. The resort was very nice...and included a lazy river and 2 huge pools. We went in the lazy river pretty much every day, but only going in the later afternoon as the average temp was about 113 degrees. Didn't feel that much hotter than here, but it was still enough to melt the makeup right off of my face. (Not really) We cooked great dinners every night and were able to go out to a great meal early Sunday night to a place called Haleiwa Joe's, a kind of seafood and steak place. Our original plan was foiled because we did not have a reservation for another restaurant, however, I think we were all pleasantly surprised with the meals!! I had an awesome salmon dinner and Mike had some great pork ribs. We would definitely recommend the restaurant to anyone. On the way home, we stopped at the famous BIG dinosaurs for Coley to see. He had a blast! He was a bit apprehensive at the beginning, but soon found out that they were very cool and even got the guts to sit in one of their mouths. All in all, we had a great time and are so glad we had the opportunity to get-away with the fam. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Feeding the ducks at the resort...



Mike and I at Haleiwa's...


Cole and Mike visiting the dinosaurs...







And here is a cool sunset picture of the typical Palm Springs look...

Houston...we have a name....

So Brian & Lindsay FINALLY decided on a name for their beautiful new daughter....Amelia Rose. I think it's beautiful and am very pleased. (Not like I had a say in the matter at ALL) :) Mike, Cole and I will be off for a mini-vacation for the weekend. We are staying in a timeshare down in Indio (close to Palm Springs) from Thursday to Monday. My parents are going with us, and Emilie and Brice will be able to come Friday night to Sunday morning. We should have a great time! When we get back, I'll post some pics of the trip. Have a great weekend!!!

Congrats Brian & Lindsay!!!

A BIG congratulations goes out to Mike's brother, Brian, and his wife, Lindsay (our sister-in-law) on the the birth of their third daughter!!! She is yet to be named, however, here are her stats so far!! She was born last night at 8:49 p.m., weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., was 18 inches long, and has lots of dark hair. :)

Lindsay did so well with the labor and delivery. She was admitted to the hospital at about 3:15 p.m. and they started her i.v.'s with the saline solution and pitossin drips soon after. She started having some mild contractions for about an hour. The doctor, Dr. Tuso, came in to the room at about 4:30 and broke her water. Her contractions came on much stronger after that, so after about 45 minutes of some tough contractions, she asked for an epidural. She dilated quickly after that...from 6-7 cm at about 5:45 p.m. to 10 cm at about 7:30 p.m. She started pushing around 8:00 or 8:15 p.m. Beverly (Lindsay's mom), Brian (the daddy), myself, and Katy (Mike & Brian's sister) were able to stay for the delivery which was so exciting and amazing to watch! Lindsay said her epidural started wearing off right before she started pushing, so she basically felt everything once she started actually delivering the baby. YIKES! But, Lindsay (and Brian) were amazing and she did so well!!!!
Here are a few pics of the "hard" labor... :)




Here are a couple pictures of the little one right after entering this big world of ours...







Daddy meeting his newest little girl!!


Ashlyn meeting her new baby sister for the first time!



Mommy meeting her newest daughter for the first time too!



All three generations of girlies!!

Grandma holding her newest granddaughter!

Grammy, PopPop and Addison meeting the new one!!

Ashlyn holding her sister for the first time!!! She was so excited!

Pop Pop smiling at his new granddaughter!

Grammy holding her new granddaughter and Addison checking the "new baby dolly" out! :)


Again, Congratulations to the Koegle family!! We can't wait to see what she's going to turn out like as the days, months and years go by! We love you guys!!!